Whaling protest churns nasty

A radical conservationist group said it lobbed 25 bottles of rotten butter at Japanese whalers in the remote and icy Antarctic Ocean, but denied claims that it rammed their vessel.

Protesters aboard a boat operated by the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd threw the bottles – containing butyric acid, produced by rancid butter – at the Kaiko Maru whaling ship, which is conducting Japan’s research whaling programme.

Japan’s Tokyo-based Institute of Cetacean Research described the protesters as terrorists and accused them of “menacing” and ramming the Kaiko Maru, causing minor damage. But renegade activist Paul Watson, captain of the Sea Shepherd’s ship, said his boat – the Steve Irwin – only brushed the whalers’ vessel lightly and defended the bottle-throwing as harmless.